Washington: The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope captured an image of a young forming star known as HBC 1, surrounded by an envelope of dust.
Releasing the stunning image on its official website, NASA says the star is in an immature and adolescent phase of life, while most of a sun-like star’s life is spent in a stable stage comparable to human adulthood.
The image shows the star illuminating a wispy reflection nebula known as IRAS 00044+6521.
Formed from clouds of interstellar dust, reflection nebulae do not emit any visible light of their own. Instead, like fog encompassing a lamppost, they shine via the light reflected off the dust from the stars embedded within.
Hubble has made more than 1.2 million observations since its mission began in 1990. Hubble does not travel to stars, planets or galaxies. It takes pictures of them as it whirls around Earth at about 17,000 mph.
(Source: ESA/NASA)
